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Sunday, September 15, 2013

Making Ceramic Hoops

When I begin to make my ceramic clay hoops, I try to think about how the end piece will be used, then make it in thickness accordingly.

For earrings - lightweight is key.

For bracelets - durability is most important.

And necklace pendants and such fall in a place in-between.

I start with a lump of porcelain clay, and I either roll out small balls to texture, flatten, then cut out.

Or I grab one of my texture plates and roll out a flat slab of clay (sometimes I leave it untextured).

To speed up the process, I use a variety of round biscuit cutters (these are for clay use only and stay in the studio, away from food).

Then as I am making them I start to think not only how these will be used, but I also like to start to think about how I am going to fire these in my kiln to over 2232 degrees F.

Anything a glaze touches during this firing - it will fuse to.

So I like to add smaller holes so that I can suspend these from hooks on rods and not have the glaze touch anything except the clay where I want it to be.

I also like to make sure that the edges are sponged clean before they go into the first bisque firing. That way they have a nice smooth clean finish to them and so that I can remove as much excess clay as possible to lighten the pieces.

Just one quick insight on how I make some of my ceramic donuts.

Luckily with clay - the possibilities are endless!

Want to see some fabulous finished jewelry using these and some of my other ceramic pieces by talented jewelry designers?